


(J)-ocks, a mermaid, and a cheerleader

by Wholeheartedlyabird



Category: (여자)아이들 | (G)I-DLE, TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Awkward Romance, Bad Jokes, Cheerleaders, Cute, F/F, Fluff, Football, Lacrosse, Sports, Swimming, Volleyball
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:13:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26416213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wholeheartedlyabird/pseuds/Wholeheartedlyabird
Summary: High school AU with G-idle, Twice, CLC, and some other K-pop idols. Soyeon, Yuqi, Miyeon, Shuhua are all jocks, and the rest you'll have to figure out for yourself. This story is kinda small highschool crackhead moments with some romance in between!
Kudos: 12





	1. Intros

**Author's Note:**

> INTROS AND STUFF 
> 
> Also, this is my first time writing an AU of any sort so please bear with me but other than that I hope you enjoy reading!

“28:16! Minnie I swear your a mermaid or something, you seem to get faster everyday! Colleges are gonna fight so hard for you.” 

Minnie looks up to Coach Sorn’s wide smile and gleaming eyes. She’s lifting herself up out of the pool still out of breath but smiles and replies:

“Ah, thanks coach! Couldn’t have done it without you.” 

She grabs a towel and heads to the locker room. Where she’s met with the rest of her team of swimmers who were... doing whale calls? Dory’s impression is so much better than what she’s hearing right now and that’s saying a lot. She covers her ears to stop a headache she feels coming on.

“AYE! What are you guys doing?!”

The girls are immediately silenced and stare at their captain. 

One of the juniors steps forward “Sorry captain we were just fooling around,”

“It’s okay to fool around, but it’s 7 in the morning. Do your whale calls in the afternoon practices, okay?” 

Minnie looks at them while drying her silky pink colored hair. She softly laughs to lighten the mood. She proceeds to swiftly get dressed and goes on with her day. 

Soojin

As an introvert Soojin and literally anyone else couldn’t have seen her as a cheerleader. But there she was being thrown 5 feet into the air at 6:30 AM when theres any barely light outside. Once Soojin gets back on the safe and dewy grass of the football field she runs to get water. She chugged it like it was the last water bottle in the world. Out of breath she whispers to herself: 

“What the heck?” 

Probably because she’s not used to this new management. Coach Seungyeon is new and so is the captain of the team, a bubbly girl by the name of Minatozaki Sana, and they’re drilling the team pretty hard considering it’s only the first day back from summer break. She can’t really complain though because they’re so much better than last years team captain and Coach. And the first football game is next Friday. 

“Seo soojin!”

Soojin snaps back into reality and focuses on the voice calling her: Coach. 

“Y-yes Coach??”

“Stop hogging all the water and get back into position!”

Soojin runs back to her place and keeps running drills for the rest of that morning. She already knows she’s gonna be sore tomorrow. 

Yuqi

“I GOT IT” Yuqi shouts as she springs into the air and spikes the ball on the other side of the net. The other team fumbles and end up loosing to yet again Song Yuqi. One of the schools star athletes.  
Once Yuqi lands on the wood of the gym she is immediately back in the air celebrating her victory. Some people think there are springs in her feet. She lands again with a little squeak of her sneakers and runs over to her friend Yeri. They exchange a sweaty high five and happy smiles. 

“Hey you wanna go get breakfast after a one on one match?”

“Is that a challenge?”

“Noooo it’s a doctors appointment. YES ITS A CHALLENGE YUQI!”

“Your on,”

They spend way too long laughing and giving each other over dramatic stare offs to take the one on one game seriously.  
They eventually leave after arguing who lost and won. They eat breakfast together and talk about what their high school year holds in store for them. 

It’s 1st period and Yuqi already hates it.

Miyeon

“CHO MIYEON IF YOU DON’T GET OVER HERE THIS INSTANT YOU’LL BE DOING CONE DRILLS FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!”

Miyeon crashes back into reality seeing Coach Solar. She sprints to her coach knowing her threat is not empty. Once she’s in front of her coach the older woman lays into her.

“I thought you were supposed to be captain of this team Miyeon.”

Miyeon straightens her back.

“I am coach. What is this all about?”

“This,”

Her coach hands her a slip of paper. Miyeon’s eyes go wide and she looks up at her to see her on the verge of tears. Miyeon smiles. 

“WHAT!?”

Composing herself she replies harshly:  
“Don’t what me, you read that right,”

“SO I DID GET A FULL RIDE TO J. PARK UNIVERSITY?!?!”

“Yes that is what the paper says,”

The coach holds her hands out for a hug and Miyeon instantly embraces her. Miyeon tries not to cry into her track suit.  
While their embracing her coach softly speaks.

“I’m so proud of you. I knew you could do great things. And it’s only your junior year Miyeon people are gonna tear each other up for you. You keep this up and you’ll be in the major leagues soon enough.”

Miyeon steps out of the older woman’s arms to look at her and smiles.

“But you said you thought I was this team’s captain why did you say that?”

“Because soon enough you’ll be the new captain of J. Park University. Alright stop the crying take a lap and go in early you earned it.”

Miyeon laughs and runs her lap in glee, paper in hand still.


	2. Soyeon and Chae the Ultimate Duo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Find me at lunch? ♥

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JIHYO IS A TEACHER AND SHE SEEMS SO NICE I WISH I HAD HER AS A SOPHOMORE ;-; 
> 
> ENJOY

August 17th 2020 AKA 1st day of school

Soyeon

1st period : Chemistry  
Teacher : Ms. Park

Soyeon closes her navy blue locker while groaning about her first class. She loathes science especially more math-related fields of science. And it’s only 8 AM her brain hasn’t fully turned on. She spots one of her teammates in the bustling hallway.

“CHAE!”

She yells cutting through the mix of students in her path. Her friend turns around to face her and smirks. Soyeon lightly punches her shoulder when she got to the other side of the mob. 

“What’s your first period??”

“Chem with Ms. Park?” 

“AYE WE HAVE THE SAME FIRST PERIOD!!”

“Oh cool cool,”

They make their way to class 108 and are greeted with a tan petite woman with a blonde bob and brown eyes. 

“Good morning! Wait aren’t you two on some sport team or something??”

“Yep! We’re on the lacrosse team I’m team captain and Soyeon is co-captain!”

“Ah! Alright well, welcome to chemistry I hope this year will be fun take a seat wherever you would like.”

Both of the blonde girls take 2 seats next to each other in the second row of seats. Soyeon gets her school laptop out ready for whatever her teacher has prepared, but she gets distracted by the girl in front of her. She has peachy red hair and wears her hair in space buns. Cute she thinks to herself. 

Chaeyoung snaps her out of her zoning out.

“Wanna play a game?”

Soyeon just nods her head yes. 

“Okay here are the rules, you have to know her name (pointing at the peach haired girl in front of Soyeon) by the end of the period or you have to do extra runs this afternoon.”  
Chaeyoung smirks proud of herself.

“THIS ISN’T A GAME THIS IS BLACKMAIL!?!” Soyeon whisper yells at her friend.

Soyeon sits straight back up in her chair nervous and shy but the class is about to start and she needs to focus.

~~~

Five minutes before the class is over and Soyeon knows her time to act is now. Ms. Park already went over the syllabus so they have some free time. Soyeon grabs a hold of all her nerves and taps the peach haired girl’s shoulder. She turns around.  
Soyeon is met face to face with probably the cutest girl in the school. 

“Yes?”

Soyeon’s mouth is dry and her head is empty except for the word cute in her head. But somehow she does that thing called speaking and spits out something stupid.

“H-hi, um, I’m Jeon Soyeon,” Soyeon literally looks ANYWHERE but her.

“Song Yuqi, nice to meet you,” 

She flashes a smile and Soyeon is pretty sure she almost fainted. Chaeyoung is watching so intensely.

“Can I see your schedule?”

Soyeon hands her a piece of paper. Yuqi takes it and turns back around to her desk. After a few seconds, she returns it to Soyeon. Except there is writing on it. She only wrote on chemistry and lunch. In pink pen she asked at the bottom of the paper: 

Find me at lunch? ♥

Soyeon nods her head at the girl. Then the bell rings and when Soyeon is done packing up Yuqi was gone. Soyeon turns to Chae.

“Her name is Song Yuqi, now what’s your punishment?”

“Oh nothing there was the only punishment for you,” 

“WHAT?!?” 

Soyeon playfully hits her friend and goes to the next class. She thinks to herself 

“Maybe chemistry won’t be that bad,”


	3. The Lions and the Broncos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuhua and Momo best football girls.

August 21st, 2020 AKA The first football game  
Shuhua  
It’s 15 minutes till the game starts and Shuhua and Momo are racing to put their gear on. Shuhua finishes first and springs up.   
“WHOOHOO! First game today I feel electric!”  
She turns around to face her friend.   
“Momo are you pumped or what?”  
Momo was still tying her cleats when asked the question.  
“Of course! We’re so gonna beat the Broncos tonight! Fighting!”  
Momo finished putting her assembly together and looked at Shuhua.  
“Were Lions, we got this!” She smiles at Shuhua and puts her helmet on. Shuhua puts some black and white lines on her cheeks and follows Momo in putting her Helmet on.  
“Let’s go lions!!” They meet up with the rest of the team and then it’s game on.  
~~~  
It’s halftime and the band are playing their songs while the team is getting water and strategizing. Sweat has ruined Shuhua’s face paint but they’re winning so she doesn’t care. BangChan, their quarterback and team leader, fell and sprang his foot so he’s out for the rest of the game. The scoreboard reads :  
LIONS 9 BRONCOS 7  
They got in a touchdown from their star quarterback, But Shuhua promises herself that’s all they’re gonna get. Since BangChan is out of commission for the night Momo, the co-captain steps up to be the temporary quarterback. Their coach pulls them together before they go out on the field.  
“Alright, it’s our turn to be offensive and kick them into next Monday. Mark and Hoshi you two are gonna be Momo’s left side wide receivers and Shuhua your gonna be our ace, okay your gonna be right wide receiver and get us a touchdown right out of the gate. Hongjoong your center this time around...”  
Shuhua tunes out and focuses on the fact that Coach Taemin just called her their ace for the game. She’s filled to the brim with excitement that she’s practically buzzing. She’s pulled back to what the coach is saying when they start saying their chant. All her team members put their hands in the center of their huddle and shout all together :  
“WE ARE LIONS HEAR US ROAR, FIGHTING!!”  
They jog out to the field and get into position then they wait for their queue. The cheering and the adrenaline going through Shuhua would make anyone explode with anticipation. Then she hears the whistle and she’s instantly thrown into action.  
“HIKE!”  
Boys are being tackled on both sides, Momo has the ball Hongjoong is covering for her. Shuhua is open. The defensive team wasn’t expecting it no one is covering her. Momo throws the ball before the opposite team takes her down. Shuhua is blindly following the ball. Her tunnel vision is blurring everything around her. Including the cheer team, she’s about to crash into.  
The next thing Shuhua knows is the ball is laying in her lap and something is squirming under her. She finally realizes it’s a person and stands up so fast but she instantly is back on the ground, not a person.  
“What’s your problem?!” The voice snapped.  
Shuhua looks at where the voice is coming from and sees it’s from a cheerleader, a very pretty one. Who is rubbing her head next to her.  
“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you or your teammates there,”  
Shuhua can tell the girl is pissed but she doesn’t care because she’s pretty.  
“Are you even listening to me?!” She asked  
“W-w uh no sorry,”  
“Well, I asked if you were okay. I think I’m gonna have a migraine for a week though, your helmet rammed into my skull. But you landed pretty hard so are you okay?”  
Shuhua felt guilt wash over her like she just came down with a sickness.  
“Well, are you okay?”  
“Yeah I’m fine I’ve fallen from 6 feet in the air, I’m pretty tough.” She chuckles  
She stands up and offers a hand to the football player. Then here comes a pack of white, black, and navy blue uniforms. The rest of the team is sprinting across the field to check on their teammate.  
“Shuhua are you okay??” Momo sounded worried almost like a mother. She kneeled next to her friend still heavily breathing from the run. The rest of the team and the cheerleader crowded around her.  
“Guys I’m all good except I may have fractured my ankle. So that’s fun right?” Shuhua jokes.  
Momo tells something to Jeno, the team’s fastest runner, and focuses her attention back to the situation. Momo looks at the concerned cheerleader.  
“Hey, are you okay? What’s your name?”  
She sounded demanding but worried Shuhua thought it was sweet.  
“Seo Soojin and I’m okay but I do need some aspirin and an ice pack,” Soojin rubs her head where Shuhua’s helmet collided with it. Before Momo says anything else Jeno is back with the nurses and Coach Taemin. The huddle is parted to make way for the nurses. They help Shuhua get on a stretcher and take her away to the local hospital. Later that night she got two texts. One from Momo telling her that they won 16 to 14 and that she should rest. The other from an unknown number saying:  
“Hey this is Soojin got ur number from Momo get better soon! ❤️”  
Shuhua passed out without charging her phone but she was happy so it didn’t matter. She knew that night was gonna change her entire year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HOPE YALL LIKED IT! Here’s the full team and their numbers 
> 
> Shuhua 6, Momo 2, Bangchan 8, Taeyong 00, Jaehyun 77, Mark 20, Kai 9, Jongho 62 DK 17, Hoshi 07, Hongjoong 81, Mingi 24, Felix 15, and Jeno 94
> 
> Yell at me on Twitter @ nvrlndvagabond  
> Umm yeah I plan on making longer chapters in the future but just bear with me right now. And THANK YOU FOR READING!!


	4. M

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minnie gets timed and biceps.

Psssttt Minnie!”

“Yes, Lisa?”

Minnie looks over to her friend who is wearing the biggest grin, Minnie smiles too when she’s it. Lisa scoots her chair closer to Minnie.

“I have a great idea,” Minnie looks at Lisa who is currently looking at Minnie’s phone like she’s gonna stab anyone who gets in her way. Minnie’s curiosity gets the best of her and the next thing you know she’s giving Lisa her phone. 

“So what exactly is this great idea you have?” Minnie skims over her notes seeing if she got all the vocab their teacher wanted them to do tonight. Lisa is still fiddling with Minnie's phone when the bell rings.

“Hey, I need my phone, Lisa,”

“Hang on gimme one second...andddd done!” Lisa swiftly gives back her phone and runs off with a quick “bye”. 

“Weirdo,”

Minnie tells herself before looking at what her friend had done to her cellphone. Her eyes grew wide when she saw a timer on her home screen. She read the little caption under it as she distractedly walked to class. 

“Text a number neighbor before this timer goes off or all your photos will be deleted ~ Love Lisa 💜”

Minnie wanted to strangle her friend at that moment. The timer read 8:47:03. Then she heard the tardy bell and hurried to class in her annoyed mood. 

~~~

3:30 PM

After school, Minnie was on the bus and stared down the timer on her home screen.

5:14:17

She let out a frustrated sigh and unlocked her phone begrudgingly. Put in her phone number but changed the last number to 6.

XXX-XXX-XXX6

“This is your number neighbor don’t answer this if you don’t want to I just don’t wanna lose my photos I hope you have a good rest of your day”

Minnie screenshots the conversation to Lisa and puts her phone away to look out the bus window. 

When Minnie gets home Lisa texts her this:

LISA 💜💜

“So that timer actually won’t   
screw up your phone or delete anything 😋”

“WHAT YOU HAD ME SO WORRIED”

“Lol what can I say I like messing with u”

“Not funny >:(“

“Well hopefully you have a   
new friend! bcuz we both know you need new friends”

“I HAVE FRIENDS!!!” 

“Me and the swim team don’t count dork  
oo or maybe a date???” 

“I do NOT need to be in a relationship right now”

“Okay but what if they’re cute?”

“And what if they want to kidnap me?”

“Oof fair point”

“🙄 I will not be updating you if anything happens ttyl”

“Oh please yes you will, who else are you gonna tell? Also who’s gonna save you if you get kidnapped?? Bye 💜”

~~~

8:14 PM

Minnie just finished her homework when she got a text from the new number on her phone.

XXX-XXX-XXX6

“Uh hi plz don’t be a kidnapper  
who’s gonna track my phone”

“Also photos??”

Minnie laughs and responds.

“Nah I’m not into that kind of stuff  
I’m more into Troye Sivan and singing :)”

“Oh dont worry about that my   
friend did a thing ANYWAYS what do you like?”

“Soccer and Shrek”

“SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME THE WORLD  
IS GONNA ROLL ME I AINT THE SHARPEST   
TOOL IN THE SHED”

“SHE WAS LOOKING KINDA DUMB   
WITH HER FINGER AND HER THUMB  
IN THE SHAPE OF AN L ON HER FOREHEAD”

“I CANT BREATHE HAHAHA”

“I’m pretty sure I have a  
6 pack now thanks for the laughs”

“Ok stranger what’s your name?”

“Just call em M”  
“Me*”

“Inch resting”

“Wh- I’m not gonna ask”

“My name also starts with   
an M so I guess call me Min”

“Is that short for Mini?   
ARE YOU SHORT?!”

“NO IM AVERAGE HEIGHT   
FOR YOUR INFORMATION”

“Hm whatever I bet your short”

“Rood”

“Did you just-“

Minnie looks up at the time.  
9:38 PM

“Hey I gotta go to bed I got swim  
practice in the morning”

“Oh I should too I gotta go kick   
a ball around at 6 in the morning”

“Lol okay well gn”

“Gn stranger that hopefully won’t kidnap me”

~~~ 

2 days later

Minnie was leaving her last class and entering the student flooded hallway. She had her headphones in when she heard a notification. A little irritated because it interrupted “Strawberries & Cigarettes” but was overall who texted her, M.

M

“Heyo”

“Hi”

“What r u doing rn?”

“Trying to find an empty hallway   
so I can concentrate”

Minnie tries to get in-between the sea of students to the mostly empty hallway in front of her. Although she should focus on getting out of the crowd she keeps texting her friend.

“Oo Min is gonna think of some big brain thoughts”

“No I need to call my mom so   
she can pick me up dummy”

“Ohh ok”

“What about you?”

“Trying to get through these overcrowded  
hallways with my soccer gear”  
“Btw I’m in highschool”

“What grade? I’m 11th”

Minnie finally gets to the secluded hallway but since she was looking down at her messages she didn’t notice the body standing right in front of her. She smashes into the back of their backpack making them drop their phone. Minnie, who was caught off guard, also drops her phone. Both the phones land near each other.

“I’m so sorry,” 

She tells the figure in front of her. She turns around and smiles. The girl is a little shorter than her, long brown hair, a very prominent nose. It's like 45 degrees, wearing high waisted jeans and a basic short-sleeved red shirt, and has nicely toned arms although she’s carrying soccer gear? 

‘Weird’ Minnie thought.

“Oh no, it’s okay really I probably drop my phone five times a day.” The girl laughs off. 

Minnie and the girl both head for phones on the ground Minnie picks them up and reads bot their screens. The alien phone has a text message from “Min” and a few twitter notifications. Before handing the phone to the girl in front of her Minnie asked:

“Uhh, who’s Min?”

The girl looks like someone just threatened her. The air turns awkward.

“Oh, this person who texted me because I think their photos were gonna get deleted or something?”

Minnie’s eyes grew wide and smiled then handed the phone back to her. Her being M. 

“Then I guess your M,”

“I’m who now?”

“M, soccer bag, likes Shrek, thinks I’m shorter than them ya know,”

M was curious.

“So you are Min? Swimmer?”

“Yep!”

Minnie smiled because she’s so glad that her new friend went to the same school as her.

“So what’s your real name Min?”

“Kim Minnie or as my coach likes to call me, the mermaid,”

“Your coach calls you a fictional fish person?”

“Wh- yes I’m really good at swimming,”

“Okay, mermaid,”

“Alright, what about you M what’s your real name?”

“Cho Miyeon other known as Cho Miyeon I don’t have any fancy nicknames,”

“Ohhh okay, well I still have to call my mom so I can go home, but I’ll text you later okay.”

“Okay bye,”

Minnie walks outside so she can get a better signal because some of the school is wifi dead. In the humid August air, Minnie thinks about what just happened in the blue and white hallways of her school. She still can’t fathom that she just met her number neighbor, Miyeon.   
‘Wow Lisa is totally gonna rub this in my face later,’ she thought. 

Her Mom finally arrives and she tells Lisa everything on the ride home. And of course, Lisa rubs it in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I came up with this introduction at like 1 AM on Saturday also sorry it took so long to upload I'm currently at school other than that we love Minnie noticing biceps


	5. Lions, Red Beetles, and Hotdogs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note these all take place on the SAME DAY which is September 18th.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long school gave me 16 hours of homework I hope yall enjoy and yes I'm still trying to figure out the format of the chapters sorry for the inconsistency

𝐒𝐨𝐨𝐣𝐢𝐧  
𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟖𝐭𝐡

Another Friday game, it’s only the 5th one of the season, but Soojin is over it. Being in the 10th grade is exhausting on its own, but with cheerleading on top of that Soojin was ready to sleep for the next two years. She puts her tiredness in the back of her mind and pays attention to the blue and white uniforms running across the field about to start the game. Momo and Bnagchan lead the team down the field and the bleachers roared with applause. The stadium was quite packed all though the team they were up against came from a small town. The more people the more Soojin’s anxiety grew, but she pushed down her worries and focused. 

Soojin was sad to see the empty spot in the pack where Shuhua would usually be. Shuhua has to be at the game no matter how much she misses this, it's her team. Fracturing your ankle has its pros and cons but Shuhua probably only thinks of the cons. Soojin would like to think that Shuhua is in bed enjoying being a warm house and not here at a football game where its a freezing 46 degrees. Soojin was sitting on the frosty bench with the rest of the cheer squad, shivering, waiting for the game to start when captain Sana turned to her. Her shaky high pitched voice cut through all the cheers from the bleachers.

“Soojin would you ever date any of the football players?” Sana hugged herself and ran her hands on her arms trying to get some sort of warmth. 

Soojin questioned why Sana would ask her that. But at this moment Soojin wanted a blanket to warm herself and her teammate up.

“Uh, I haven’t really considered it. I mean school just started, but my answer would have to be maybe?” Soojin looked at the ground and messed with the fake grass underneath her thinking about it. 

“Hm interesting I could see you with one!” Sana softly laughed.

Soojin didn’t know how to take that but it’s probably a compliment considering how nice Sana is. Soojin looks back up and drags her bag over to her from under the bench they’re occupying.

“What about you?” Soojin questions as she gets her water bottle out.

“Hirai Momo has caught my eye,” Sana answers that while looking at Momo from across the field. Momo sees her and gives her a small wave, Sana winks, and waves, instantly making Momo look away from the cheerleader. 

Soojin is not prepared for that answer and almost chokes while drinking her water. Sana looks at her coughing and laughs. When Soojin calms down she responds with:

“Didn’t pin you down as the cliché type Sana.”

“You don’t know me that well Soojin considering I yell at you for 2 to 3 hours every morning but it’s okay.” Sana gets up and loses the bubbly friend act. She’s the full-on captain now, she starts yelling about getting into a certain cheer stance. Soojin jumps up and gets in position and thinks about what Sana said.  
She thinks Sana and Momo would look cute together.  
~~~ 

“LET ME HEAR YOU ROAR!” Sana yelled out at the crowd. 

They responded with a huge wave of cheers and deafening screams it gave everyone on the field a boost of energy.

Soojin put her pom-poms down on the field and bolted to the part- restroom part-concessions stand, knowing this is probably the only time she’ll be able to go. After doing her business she decided to get a cup of hot chocolate for her and Sana to fight the biting cold of the evening. Soojin pulled out her simple wallet and ordered it when it was her turn in the ever-growing line. When Soojin got the drinks that were quickly getting colder with each passing second she noticed someone walking, more like limping, away from the restroom. 

They were wearing a blue and white letterman jacket with the number 6 on it, their last name was covered by their long black hair the jacket was paired with black joggers. They had a bigger build but still small, crutches under both arms and an ankle wrapped in puppy bandages. It clicked in Soojin’s mind who it was, she speed-walked to the injured person. 

“Hey!” Soojin smiles at her.

“Soojin?” She looks back wide-eyed.

“Duh, who else would it be? I’m fairly no other cheerleader wants to talk to you because you crashed into us.” Soojin sarcastically retorts to the athlete then sips some of her hot cocoa. Soojin takes a good look at Shuhua, her dark circles had gotten darker since yesterday, she looked weak it made Soojin unbearably worried about the younger girl.

“Haha, I think your right about that I’m glad you don’t hate me,” Shuhua continues to limp back to the bleachers. Soojin felt touched and just wants to make Shuhua some seaweed soup so she can get better faster.

“Hey.. where are you sitting?” Says Soojin 

“Front row to the left,”

The side their home team is on of course.

“I’ll talk to you after the game okay? But I gotta get back to cheering and leading and all that,” Soojin rubs Shuhua’s back then runs off with both hot chocolates in her hands back to the track where Sana and the rest of the team waited. 

~~~

Soojin packs up her stuff, waves goodbye to the team, and books it to the bleachers to find Shuhua because she wanted to leave. Soojin gets to the bleachers which we’re still semi filled with people but most of them are gone. Soojin hugs herself while she walks over to the girl with crutches laying next to her.

“You have a ride?” Soojin asks.

Shuhua looks up at the cheerleader. Squinting, because the stadium lights are still on and blinding. 

“Uhh no, I was just about to text my mom though,” 

“I could take you home,” Soojin offers.

Soojin’s nerves rise after saying that. Shuhua looked at her confused.

“Uh okay? But why?”

“I can explain in the car because unlike you I’m freezing okay,” Soojin helps Shuhua up and starts walking to her car.

Soojin opens the door to her little red Volkswagen Beetle for Shuhua. She takes her crutches and places them in the backseat with her cheer bag. Soojin races to get into the driver's seat and starts the car. The heater kicks on and Soojin is so grateful for her little car. She clicks her seatbelt into place and looks over at Shuhua to see if she had hers on. Shuhua is looking back at her with a small smile, Soojin smiles and starts to drive. 

“So why are you taking me home again?”

“Why not? Also, I wanted to get to know you more in person, Kermit memes and football can’t be your only personality traits.” Soojin chuckles trying to merge into a lane.

“Haha, okay then, by the way, you looked great out there today,” Shuhua starts to tweet something on her phone, but Soojin doesn’t notice she’s too busy blushing and focusing on the road.

“I uh thanks,” Soojin flusters out.

Shuhua jumps up in excitement and looks at Soojin.

“Did you see the way Momo threw that pass to Mingi in the last pass?! That was one of the best spirals I’ve ever seen by a high schooler! No wonder we won. We have Hirai Momo and Taeyong!”

“Definitely the best I’ve ever seen, now where are we turning from here?” Soojin asked while at a red light. 

~~~

𝐘𝐮𝐪𝐢  
𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟖𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

“Minnie what?” Yuqi asked.

“Look all I’m saying is that hotdogs should be considered a sandwich,” Minnie puts her hands up and closes her eyes.  
Yuqi looks at her wondering what is going on in her head. They walk into a small café, The Coffee Express, it’s not far from their school, maybe a block or so. The girls had made plans earlier in the week to get hot cocoa or as Minnie liked: coffee. The cold melting away when they enter the homey establishment Yuqi sees some people from their school scrambling to get late minute homework done and some hipster-looking adults typing away on their laptops. The coffee shop had a thrifty vintage vibe but yet it felt so much like a home it was comforting. Yuqi turns her attention away from the details of the shop to her friend and the menu. 

“They have three types of hot cocoa?!” Yuqi points out.

“Hm, so what are you gonna pick?” 

“Salted caramel sounds good, so that one,” Yuqi laughs at her awkwardness and then orders with Minnie. 

~~~

They’re walking back to school with their giant coats and hot drinks in hand. 

“As a junior what's it like? Does it suck that much?” Yuqi takes another sip of her cocoa while she waits for a response. 

“Depends on what you take really. I don’t think it sucks, but it is pretty busy because of college and all that.”

“Okay, that's fair, okay next question. Would you date anyone in your grade?”

Minnie scrunches her brows for a second thinking of potential significant others in her class.

“There are some candidates, but I don’t think I would date in high school.”

Yuqi jumps at the answer and raises her voice.

“What?!? Why not?!” 

Minnie laughs at her reaction.  
“I’m too busy to worry if I found love or not and college would tear us apart. Especially if we go out of state so it's kinda pointless.” Minnie takes a long drink of coffee and smiles.

Yuqi felt sad that Minnie felt this way. Yuqi just kept thinking :

“It doesn’t have to be serious or anything, it's just dating!”

Yuqi was determined to help her friend even if she doesn’t know it.

“That's reasonable, but I will not hesitate to find you a soulmate while we're at a prison- I mean highschool together.” Yuqi flashes Minnie a big smile and finds a trashcan to throw away her cup.

“Whatever you want Yuqi,” Minnie just let her be.

“Alright enough about dating,” Yuqi gestures to being sick.  
“Now would you rather constantly talk in puns or speak in a really thick accent?”

“Both of those are horrible options,” Minnie scoffs

“Well duh, how else am I supposed to make it hard?”

They get to the school and go their separate ways.

~~~

𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐝  
𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲  
𝐌𝐬. 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤

“You know Chaeyoung, I was talking to Minnie about hotdogs this morning, and funny enough here you are saying hotdogs are TACOS,” Yuqi says to Chaeyoung while looking over her planner for next week. 

“It just makes sense! Okay!” 

“Maybe on a different planet Chae,” Soyeon chimes in behind her.

“And what's your take on this situation?” Yuqi asks, turning around in her seat.

Soyeon lightly blushes and answers the question.

“I uh, well think hotdogs are their category it’s the only logical answer,” 

Soyeon looks down at her notebook and starts writing something down. 

“Hey, are you guys going to the game tonight?” Chaeyoung asks.

“I can’t I’m hanging out with Yeri tonight although you two should go!”

Chaeyoung turns to Soyeon.

“What about you Soyeon?”

“Nope, I have a music theory project to get started on and I have a feeling it’s gonna take a while.” Soyeon looks at Chae and shrugs her shoulders.

“Well, I’m going! Hopefully, we win.”

“Is that really a question? Just because Shu is out of the game doesn’t mean the team is hopeless.” Soyeon points out.

“She only has one more week until she can start doing rehab. She’s getting the rest she needs.” Yuqi turns back around as Ms.Park starts calling attendance.

“Fighting!” Chaeyoung whispers yells, then joins the class in the daily call of attendance.

~~~

𝐌𝐢𝐲𝐞𝐨𝐧  
𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥

After unlocking the door to her home Miyeon's phone buzzed.

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐡𝐮𝐚 (𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲)

“Hey Shuhua I can’t make it to the game ;-;”

“What why?!?!?”

“I have to do some stupid last-minute AP assignment for physics >:(“

“Oooof that sucks my dude”

“I know but I hope you have fun hopefully the rest of the gang is there!”

“Soojin will be there right?”

“Shuhua...shes on the CHEERLEADING TEAM”

“Ohh yeah sorry I forget these things sometimes”

“Literally how you CRASHED INTO THE GIRL”

“I KNOW AND STOP BRINGING THAT UP IT’S EMBARRASSING” 

“Lmao no”

“I hate you”

“You could never :)”

“Bet”

“Lol whateverrrr”

“Do you know if Minnie is free?”

“I’m not sure sorry”

“What? You guys text a lot I would think you’d know”

“Well I don’t so just text her”

“K”

Miyeon puts some music on and tries not to pass out doing her homework. Spoiler alert she finishes her homework but passes out at her desk on top of her AP physics textbook.

~~~

𝐒𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐨𝐧  
𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

Soyeon sighs in frustration, her brows coming together while looking at the paper in front of her. She grabs a pen and starts writing notes around the words and noting where syllables should be emphasized and where instruments should be alone. Her phone buzzes on the desk, she flips it over to see two texts one from Shuhua the other from Yuqi. Soyeon previews Shuhua’s text it reads: 

“Yuqi told me you were doing a project and couldn’t come to the game ;-; but I hope it goes well! Fighting!”

Soyeon smiles at the short but sweet text from her friend. She opens her phone to see Yuqi’s.

𝐋𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥❤️

“Yeri had to bail tonight :(“

“Aw I’m sorry about that”

“It’s alright that just means I can go to sleep early”

“Yay we love sleep”

“Yes we do  
Hows your project going?”

“Could be better kinda stuck on the hook :/”

“Lol make it like a weird noise like Papapa or something”

“Haha your funny Yuqi”

“Is that sarcasm I’m reading?”

“Only the best”

“Well I hope you figure it out I gotta go tho bye dummy”

“Okay byeeee”

Soyeon softly smiled and started working again she knew what the song was missing. Following Miyeon she passed out on her desk on a small stack of papers filled with lyrics.

~~~

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐡𝐮𝐚  
Shuhua had decided to stay home today her ankle seemed to hate her and started to torment her to new levels of pain today. The football player spent the day in bed on her phone texting her friends and mindlessly scrolling through Instagram. Until she scrolled past a suggested account by the name of “Cube_rumors” and like any other normal teenager she immediately tapped on it and tried to get to the bottom of whatever it was she discovered. So apparently its a rumor account about dating and all that fun stuff. Every submission is anonymous. Shuhua started reading. She laughed and gasped at the somewhat controversial rumors on the posts until she scrolled to a particularly unsettling one. The post said:

“Sources say that captain of the swim team is running around with another team captain (idk what sport though)”

Shuhua stared at her phone confused and mildly disturbed that someone would say something about her friend. She immediately wanted to take action so she went to the source she decided to ask Minnie about it.

𝐌𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

“Minnie! When you got the time I gotta ask you a question”

“Umm I have time now also this better not be about rats again because MICE ARE NOT RATS SHUHUA”

“Not about that but my stance has not changed on that topic”

“Whatever 🙄 but what’s your question?”

“So ikindastumbledacrossarumoraboutyou”

“Shuhua please add spaces it’ll give me a headache if I try to read that”

“I kinda stumbled across a rumor about you”

“HUH?!??!”

“yEAH”

“What did it say??”

“That you were supposedly running around (dating?) a team sports captain”

“Bruv what”

“I didn’t want to assume anything so I came to you my friend to ask you about it because its probs not true”

“Yeah it’s not real, but like who the HECK would start that about me?”  
“Anyone hate you?”

“I’m not sure but this is weird”

“Yeah I don’t feel good about it”

“Well hey thanks for telling me don’t worry about it okay? This is my problem stay safe and get better soon please”

“WAIT”

“??”

“Are u going to the game tonight?”

“Probably not I think im gonna do some late-night practicing for swim but maybe next time I’ll go”

“Okay :(“

“Talk soon <3”

Shuhua puts her phone down on her nightstand and flips to her back and spreads out all her limbs. She lets out a deep breath while looking at her glow in the dark stars on her ceiling. She’s confused about everything that just happened but knows Minne has it under control. She laughs and lays in that star position for awhile.

~~~

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 

The game went by fairly quickly the plays by her team were airtight the other team didn’t really even stand a chance. Shuhua went to the restroom a little after the third quarter started. Swinging and limping back to her seat on the bleachers she was stopped by a cheerleader, a cute one in fact. Then the next she knows is that she’s in that cute cheerleader’s red Volkswagen Beetle and she’s taking her home. 

“Definitely the best I’ve ever seen, now where are we turning from here?”

“Left,” Shuhua directs.

Shuhua can’t believe that the girl she smashed into is taking her home at 11:23 on a Friday night.  
Her heart is beating fast and her hands are itchy with anxiety. Shuhua doesn’t really understand why she acts like this around Soojin. Maybe because she’s a cheerleader and she’s never talked to one before let alone one as pretty as her.

“Shuhua I have a question,”

“Uh sure, what is it?”

Shuhua’s mind practically turns into putty with overthinking. She questions herself “what’s she gonna ask?” Over and over again.

“What made you want to join the football team?”  
Soojin glances at her then set her eyes back on the road.  
Now, this is something Shuhua can answer no problem.

“Well…I wanted to be something other than a pretty girl, a visual if you will. Something about knocking heads and getting tackled is so exciting! Especially being one of the only two girls on the team, it makes things interesting! I love it so much, the cheers, pushing yourself past almost every limit, strategy, the raw power you need to play, and much more. It’s my passion in short.”

“Even if you screw up your body while you're at it?” 

“You shouldn’t be talking miss, gets-thrown-6-feet-in-the-air-for-fun,”

They both laugh at that comment and they share the same smiles for a few moments.

“Hey to your right that’s my house,” Shuhua points.

It was a small one-story house with tan cobblestone walls, a dark spruce door, a nice gray concrete path leading to it, evenly cut grass in their front yard, and two porch lamps on either side of the dark door it was quaint, homey even.

Soojin pulls over in her Volkswagen Beetle in front of her home. Soojin cuts the engine and gets out to help Shuhua get her crutches.  
She helps Shuhua somewhat walk to her front door. Shuhua enters the threshold of her place and turns around to the shorter girl standing in only just a cheerleader outfit. 

“Thank you for the ride,”

“Eh, no problem also get better and stay healthy.”

Shuhua laughs and they both say goodbye and goodnight to one another. Shuhua lays in her bed that night unable to sleep because of Soojin running through her mind.


End file.
